Anyway, thanks the student life office at SU London, I was able to spend two nights in Dorset, a county in southwest England. The trip, which consisted of numerous walks, hikes, and natural wonders had been planned for us and even included a cliff-top view of the sunset at Portland Heights. Unfortunately for us, the unpredictable English weather paid no mind to our plans.
With temperatures averaging just under 40°F, rain that fell sideways, and winds that were even pushing me around, we were all blown away. (Too punny, I know) Despite the horrendous weather, the places we traversed had beautiful views, even if they were clouded by fog and mist. Perhaps the most entertaining part of our journey was an 8 kilometer hike along the Isle of Purbeck and St. Aldhelm's Head. We started out down a gated farm path, and eventually made our way to the sea. While we were greeted by cliffs high above the English channel and a view that seemed like the edge of the world, we were also greeted by narrow paths filled with mud, sheep...droppings, barbed wire fences and thorns. We took that road less traveled, and it hurt man!
*A short interjection, if you didn't get that last reference, you need to watch this video...right now.
Now let's backtrack a bit here, a few days before this trip, I decided to buy a new pair of boots for the hike. I popped into a few stores in Covent Garden, and eventually bought a pair of waterproof Dr. Martens to protect my feet from the elements. The next day, I decided to break those puppies in - MISTAKE. With inadequate sock protection and stiff, fresh out of the factory boots, I got two raging blisters, one for each of my feet (how thoughtful of them...)
Needless to say, those boots were not going to work out for the trip the next day. And, after a few hours of trying on different bandaid, sock, and shoe combinations, I discovered the only shoes I could even walk in were my crappy, falling apart, $15 boots from Charlotte Russe that had absolutely no traction. Thankfully for me, my flatmate Nina had the sense to remind me to wrap a plastic bag around my foot to keep moisture out. I may have slip, slided away the majority of the time, but I managed to stay vertical and dry nearly the whole trip. That is, until we got about 50 yards away from the coach, where both my body and gravity rebelled against me, and I landed firmly in a pile of mud. Hey, I wouldn't be me unless something like that happened, right?
Regardless, I had a fantastic time laughing at the ridiculousness of it all as well as enjoying the beauty that is the English coast. With how much collective cackling coming from our group as we fall flat on our faces time and time again, you would have thought we were off our trolley!
Here are a few more shots from Dorset:
Atop the Iron Age hill-fort, Maiden Castle.
Ruins of Corfe Castle.
The end of the world in Weymouth.
Me and my friends Jill, Dana, and Alissa at Portland Heights.
Our last beachside stop at Studland Beach.
On a much less adventurous note, I spent the morning perusing Kew Gardens in west London. Escaping the city for a few hours before class was just as refreshing as Dorset - without the mud, bitter cold, and wind and plus lots of beautiful trees, flowers, and warm greenhouses. Take a look at this spring eye candy:
Cheers!
U.K. English Phrase of the Week: "of [their] trolley" meaning crazy
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